Dark Antique Mirrors for John Jacob Interiors

I've spent quite a lot of time perfecting a much darker, more aged-looking antique mirror for John Jacob Interiors. While I fuss a lot about the antiquing effect- the grain in the silvering, achieving beautiful creamy, almost "bright" silvering,  John was far more interested in the quality of the reflection that the mirrors achieved. He wanted people to appear almost silhouetted in the mirrors, like the one pictured above.

Now to achieve this in straight silver is easy, but to manage it in two layers - one silver, one copper -that's quite tricky. Copper has a tendancy to overpower a thin silver layer, giving you a bright, coppery-pink mirror.  Yet an oxidised copper properly worked into the silver creates blooms of brightness and gives my mirrors their unique atmospheric signature.

To get John's mirrors right, I thinned out the silver substantially, maintaining the weathered 'speckling' that makes antique mirrors look aged. To retain the cuprous layer that gives my antique mirrors their unique feel, I completely reworked the formula and application of the copper backing. The resulting mirror looks great. People reflected in the mirrors look silhouetted, almost candle-lit, Rembrandt-esque. I'm looking forward to seeing these mirrors framed in their respective interiors.

Private Client, Camps Bay

Late November 2011 two large mirrors were installed in the guest bathroom of a prestigious new home in Camps Bay. The client requested heavily distressed antique mirror to reflect and blend with a black and white damask wallpaper. Mirrors were framed in timber by Franco and Son Joinery. Architects: Van Biljon Barnado of Tyger Valley.

3D visualisation by architects showing antique mirrors and early wallpaper theme. The mirror behind the pedestal basin is 2.5m high

The smaller of the two mirrors, this one installed above the WC, reflecting the damask wallpaper pattern.

Private Client, Newlands

The four panels in the workshop shortly before installation. Note the rippled edge treatment.

 
These full-length antique mirrored panels were installed into the doors concealing the main dressing room at a private residence in Newlands. The client, an artist, wished for mirrors that were "silvery, but cloudy" with swirling blooms and shapes discernible in the surface. Having seen a sample with a rippled edge, she asked for the same treatment along the edges of her mirrors. The resulting effect is of antique silver mirrors floating like puddles on the sheets of glass.

Cape Mirrors at Decorex 2011

We, the slave-owners of Cape Mirrors just completed a successful Decorex from 29 April to 1 May at the ICC in Cape Town. At just 4 sqm, our stand was tiny. Tiny. The challenge: how to maximise the effect of our beautiful mirrors in such a pigeonhole? I built a scale model at 1:10, sketched in eye-level, and then Shelley and I played around with mirrors and reflections to see how best to display our surface texture.

The most important design criterion was ensuring that passers-by could see the tone and texture of our antique mirror finish. This meant displaying mirrors on only one of the side walls, so that they reflected the opposite white surface.  Doubling the perceived volume of the stand was an added bonus.

Then, to catch the over-stimulated visitor’s eye, we decided to stencil a set of words on the opposing wall. Again, a caveat: the words had to be written in reverse. We were the only stand on Decorex with a whole wall dedicated to mirror-writing. Some of our words were fairly obvious: atmosphere, stillness, meditation. Others were meant to make the intelligent visitor think: simulacrum (copy), puddle (reflection), chimney (for smoke...and mirrors).

The antique mirror wall was done in square panels. I silvered them in two sets, eight at a time. This kept the continuity of the design. The result was magnificent: areas of blackened, antiqued silver drift from panel to panel in a loose, organic fashion. The whole mural gradually softened and cleared to plain smoky silver at the top. Shadow gaps top, side and bottom delineated the whole thing.

So much for left wall, right wall. The rest of the stand was a simple affair. It centred on our beautiful Cigar Store Mirror, which we borrowed back for the occasion. The oxblood of our reverse lettering was picked up by the retro colouring of silk roses, and a luxuriant handmade rug found by Shelley completed the stand with its inviting, creamy warmth.

The effect was exactly as planned. Visitors loved the look, stopping for long moments to soak up the atmosphere of our tiny cubicle. I’d like to thank the following for the help they gave so generously: the ‘Three Girls’, most especially Shelley, for their ideas, inputs and insistence on keeping the stand simple and practical. Thank God for the female touch. I’d also like to thank Chris, for his muscle, his cool, and his insistence on getting it right. Chris helped me install and undo the whole thing and without him, I couldn’t have done it.

Garden Mirror Meditations

I've just completed the first antique garden mirror I’ve been asked to do in ages. The client, a keen gardener living in Bishopscourt, had been looking for ‘rusticated mirrors’ and was delighted to see a sample of my heavily antiqued finish, like the sample shown on the website. His idea was to set the mirror onto his boundary wall just beyond the northern edge of his veranda, in front of a curved water feature.

We agreed on the sizing of the mirror (1.3m x 1m) and decided it should be framed with a pair of climbing plants on a dark-painted trellis - perhaps variegated ivy, or something similar (these aren’t shown in the picture). While preparing the antique silvering, I ensured that the mirror was well splotched and corroded along the length of its vertical edges, so that in time, the hard edge of the reflection would naturally lose itself into the foliage that was eventually to frame it.

The result is a beautiful, undemanding mirror, a shade-filled extension of the veranda. The eye wanders deep into the darkened reflection and finds little details here and there – lamps hanging from the veranda ceiling, the architectural detail in the windows and doors. It’s a delight to stare into while sitting on the comfy chairs, sipping coffee.

I have always loved the meditative combination of heavily antiqued garden mirrors and water features. Deep, dark reflections, sunlit foliage and the quiet trickle of water just seem to belong together.

A New Antique Mirror for Cecile and Boyd's

Phew, check out the oxymoron in the title of this post...

OK, so greetings from the Cape Mirrors Studio again, where I've just completed silvering another magnificent antique mirror for Cecile and Boyd's. This was a record-breaking (for me) 2.3m x 1.1m bevelled mirror which stretched yours truly (and his equipment) to the limit. It's due to be mounted on a backing board and will head off to an exclusive apartment at the V&A Waterfront next month.

While cleaning up and polishing the front surface of any antique mirror I make, I always spend an hour or so checking every detail of my work. Yesterday, I was struck once again by the richness in the silver plate. The granular deposition of silver, interlaced with zinc creates the most wonderful sense of quiet atmosphere in the reflection. If Mark Rothko had ever painted on glass with pure silver, this meditation in texture would have been the result.

Since mirrors of this sort of size are painfully difficult to photograph, I took some detailed shots of the corners instead, where the granulation in the antique silvering is at its heaviest. They only show the first 50cm of the mirror, but they give you an idea of the texture. From thereon in, the silvering only gets smoother, quieter and more sublime. It's a joy to look at.

There are very few people in the world who actually know the secrets of making decent-looking antique mirrors. There are even fewer of us who can make antique mirrors that don't look as if they were 'antiqued'. At Cape Mirrors, we specialise in making that kind of antique mirror. Our mirrors are special. Like heirlooms, they capture the moods and feelings of another, much older time.

Antique Mirrors Online

Google has this very nice little feature that allows you to see all the news items related to a specific keyword search. So a couple of months ago, I set this up in my Google News headings, with the keywords "antique mirrors". I have been most pleasantly surprised by the results. I get new stories almost every day, demonstrating the demand for antique - or very good-looking antiqued mirrors. I wonder if they are as beautiful as the mirrors I make?

My biggest obstacle in this game is public awareness. Designers, decorators and the public at large at best have very vague notions of what distressed mirrors are, or what they can do for an interior. They go to large glass companies and are shown huge sheets of imitation antique mirror. This stuff is so horrible it makes you want to give up living. So every now and then it is heartening to see articles online on the arcane subject of antique mirror-making. They encourage people to go out, look properly and hopefully mail me for a quote. This article came by recently, from the UK - based Guardian newspaper. It contains links to other mirror-makers...check out some of those prices!

I enjoy seeing the work of other mirror-makers online. There are very few folk in the world who have this kind of knowledge. There are even fewer who can make an antiqued - or distressed mirror look 'right' while avoiding the feeling that it's just clever chemistry. In my opinion, there's a profound difference between something that looks like the splattering of paint-effect style antiquing, and the artistry that turns a silver plate into a profoundly atmospheric surface. You'll get that at Cape Mirrors, folks, and few places besides.